As part of the refurbishment of Northgate House in Cardiff City Centre, the basement was to be converted into Hopbunker, a brand new bar for local craft brewery Hopcraft.

Once stripped back to the original structure however, the fully earth-retaining basement was found to be suffering from water ingress, as well as lacking any existing form of adequate waterproofing protection.

Newton Specialist Contractor Protectahome were contacted by the project developer to provide a complete design and installation service.

Protectahome’s specialist team designed a fully maintainable Type C cavity drainage system using the Newton CDM System to provide a Grade 3 environment that was both suitable for Hopbunker and fully complied with the requirements of BS 8102:2009.

The bespoke system incorporated the use of Newton 508 membrane, installed to all wall and floor surfaces and including the concrete pillars throughout the basement. By capturing any ingressing water that is penetrating through the structure the cavity drain membrane protects the internal surfaces and finishes.

Once captured, the now depressurised water moves down to the bottom of the membrane, where a Basedrain perimeter channel was installed to direct the water to a safe point of disposal.

In this case, and considering the size of the basement and the volumes of water, the safe point of disposal was three Titan-Pro White sump chambers, each containing two specialist NP400 automatic pumps and completed by the installation of a High Water Level Alarm to each chamber.

As well as completing the project on schedule and within budget, Protectahome provided thorough protection to a venue that has since been credited as the Cardiff Pub of the Year for 2016 and 2017.

The Type C installation also conformed with BS 8102:2009, and Protectahome issued a long-term guarantee for the work.